The Prophecy of Doom
by Silvertongue90
Summary: When I woke up this morning, I was a regular kid and self-proclaimed closet nerd of all things Egyptian. I was nobody special. That all changed when I met the Kane siblings...
1. Warning

**Warning**

The story you are about to read is from an audio recording that was sent to me in a slightly banged up lock box with three deep Wolverine style scratches down the side. Unusual symbols that glowed a light blue were etched onto all sides of the box. I took it to an expert to find out what the symbols meant and he reluctantly admitted that he didn't know. He was able to tell me that they were similar to Egyptian hieroglyphs, but it would probably take him years to decipher the meaning.

We tried several ways to pry open the box, even used a chainsaw and it didn't so much as dent the medal.

Later that night, when I took the box home it mysteriously opened by itself. Inside was the recording I mentioned. The more I listened to it the more astonished I became. My first thought was that it was a wonderful story someone sent me; however, I couldn't dismiss the unusual symbols or the fact that the box withstood the force of a chainsaw.

After I finished listening to the recording I did some digging. The Brooklyn Museum did in fact suffer some inexplicable damage in the Egypt Reborn section a few months ago. The footage recovered was fuzzy and I could barely make out what looked like three kids in the room at the time. They were never found and the curator couldn't remember what they looked like.

If the events in the recording are true we may all have cause for alarm. I will let you, the reader, decide what to believe. As for me, I am keeping my fingers crossed that this is an elaborate hoax.


	2. I Plunge To My Death

**Chapter One: I Plunge To My Death**

**Part One**

It's bad enough that it's raining. If I had known this morning that I would fall off the side of a mansion and be carried away by a griffin, I would have refused to get out of bed.

Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself.

I guess I should start with introductions, that seems like a good place to begin. My name is Jake Daniels and no it is _**not **_Jack Daniels. You have no idea how annoying it is to be called that. Sometimes I wish I could go back in time and tell my parents that there will be dire consequences if they name their only son Jake Daniels. Like he'll get his head stuck in toilets or have to listen to the endless jokes from dickheads. Okay, maybe we should move on before my blood pressure sky rockets.

So where was I going with all this? Oh, yeah!

I swear everything I am about to tell you is the truth and nothing but the truth. Believe me when I tell you that I know it'll be hard to swallow. I think if someone else were telling me this story I'd be looking for the hidden cameras and make weird faces. Don't look at me like that you know you'd do the same.

I'm gonna ask you for a big favor. Could you at least try to have an open mind while you listen to me tell my story? Everyone should know the danger we're all in and it helps recording all this because believe me it's hard keeping something this huge a secret.

My day started like any other typical day since I moved in with my aunt four weeks ago.

She hollered up the stairs, waking me for breakfast and I tripped and stumbled across the slightly messy floor with my eyes half shut. Some how I made it to the kitchen without breaking any important body parts. My mom used to say it was something I inherited from my dad and she would get this goofy smile on her face. That was back when she thought all his habits were endearing.

Breakfast was the usual clumpy oatmeal that stuck to my teeth and tasted awful no matter how much honey and milk I used. I don't think Aunt Lucinda knew how to make it any other way.

Afterwards, I helped clean up the kitchen and then trudged to my room to get dressed. That's where my typical day ended.

Normally, I spent the rest of the time in my room playing on my Xbox One and coming out for meals and the occasional fresh air. Today, I wanted to do something different. If I spent another minute in this house pretending my life hadn't been turned upside down, I was going to scream.

I tossed on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt with a rock band logo across the front. A quick glance in the mirror showed one side of my dull brown hair had been flattened from sleep. I ran a hand through it until it stood up on end, looking like I had been in a wind storm.

Shrugging at my reflection I turned away, snagging my wallet on the way out the door.

Taking the stairs two at a time, I went into the living room where Aunt Lucinda was dusting her already impeccably clean apartment.

"I'm going out."

She looked up, startled. "Oh! Do your parents normally let you out by yourself?"

"Yep," I said, inching my way toward the door.

"I don't know, Jake, " she answered doubtfully. "Are you sure—"

"I'll be back before dinner," I said and dashed out into the hall corridor. The elevator was two feet down the hall and had an out of order sign taped against the doors. I sighed and headed for the stairs.

My aunt lived on the third floor of the five story apartment complex. I have never liked stairwells. The doors cut off all sound, so the only thing I could hear were my own feet clomping down the stairs and echoing off the walls. I hurried down the stairs to get to the lobby.

I breathed easier when I pushed open the door and was greeted by the sight of the ebony skinned doorman, Ralph. "Aren't you Ms. Cowell's nephew?"

"Yes, sir."

"Didn't your aunt say your were a genius or something?"

"I wouldn't exactly say I'm a genius," I muttered, feeling my face heat up.

Ralph just smiled. "Would you like me to hail a taxi for you?"

"Yes, please."

I followed him outside and watched with amazement as he stepped to the curb and whistled loudly, waving his arm in the air.

A taxi slowed down and slid to the curb next to him. I think it's cool how some people have the knack for that. Whenever I try it the taxis won't stop and the pedestrians give me a strange look.

The doorman opened the taxi door for me. "Where would you like this fine fellow to take you?"

"Um," I racked my brain for anything I knew about Brooklyn, wishing I had read up on the tourist attractions before leaving my room. "Where do you suggest?"

"You like museums? The Brooklyn Museum boasts of one of the largest collection of ancient Egyptian art in the U. S. Anyone who visits Brooklyn should make at least one trip there."

"Okay, I guess I'll go there," I tried to sound nonchalant and maybe even a little bored. On the inside I was jumping up and down, squealing like a fan girl, or rather boy, because squealing like a girl would be weird and uncool. If I had known the Brooklyn museum had an Egyptian section I would have gone there earlier.

Ralph gave me a large smile and I wondered if he could see right through me.

I hopped into the taxi and he shut the door behind me, then gave directions to the driver. Ralph winked at me. "Have fun!"

Whenever I sit in a car I zone out. I couldn't tell you where I was or even how to get to where we were going. That annoyed my dad a lot, but I can't help it. It's like the car lulls me into a trance.

The next thing I knew we were pulled up along side the museum and the driver was telling me the fare.

I dug into my wallet and paid him in cash giving him an extra buck as a tip. I know that's a lousy tip. To be perfectly honest, I gave him extra because I didn't have any quarters.

"Keep the change," I said and he gave me a sour look.

Once inside, I paid for the fee and was told that the Egyptian Galleries was on the third floor. I decided to go ahead and start there. I looked at the artifacts, reading their history and slowly made my way to the Egypt Reborn section.

I was looking at a statuary that according to the plaque was dated anywhere between 3500 to 3600 B.C.E. when I became aware that I wasn't alone.

Two kids were hanging out farther ahead of me in the section where the Romans became involved in Egypt. Normally, I wouldn't have even noticed them or cared, except these two were different.

The boy was a tall African-American and dressed in a white tunic with equally white pajama bottoms. _Was that a karate uniform? _He had a bag slung over his shoulder and held a boomerang in his hand. I wondered how he had gotten through security with that thing. He looked about my age, maybe a year older.

The girl had caramel-colored hair and dressed similarly to the boy, except while he wore some kind of weird loafers, she had some mean looking combat boots. Oh, and her hair was streaked with blue. She had an old looking staff in her hand and a backpack over one shoulder.

It was clear that they were fighting about something. Curious to find out what they were arguing about I moved closer.

"—such a wimp, Carter!"

"I'm not a wimp!" Carter protested. "Remember what happened last year when we tried to get the first part of the Book of Ra? We should come back tonight armed with spells that will counteract the magic here."

"Or I could break open the display case and we zip out of this fun house through the back door."

"Argh! You are so impossible sometimes!"

"You're no prize—!"

The next thing I knew the display case next to them exploded. I dove to the ground, covering my head to prevent the shards of glass from skewering me. Alarms all around the room blared loudly.

"Sadie! Look what you did."

"Don't blame me! You made it explode too!

"Never mind, get the scroll!"

I looked up in time to see the girl, Sadie, grab a papyrus from the broken display. I scrambled to my feet. "Hey!" I shouted. "Put that back!"

Carter pushed Sadie away. "Run!"

I glanced around frantically for security. Where the heck were they? I threw myself at Carter, tackling him to the ground. His boomerang clattered to the floor and I picked it up. I threw it at Sadie and it hit her square in the back, knocking her off her feet. I was a little surprised when the boomerang came back to me and I barely caught it before it clipped me in the jaw.

Carter pushed me off and tried to run, but I used the boomerang to grab his ankle and tripped him. He sprawled on the ground and I raced after Sadie as she tried to stand up.

When she saw me coming she reached for her staff and I had no choice but to kick her hand. Sadie howled and snatched it back to cradle against her chest. I picked up the staff.

"Look, I don't want to hurt you. Please, just hand over the scroll and I'll tell the guards it was an accident."

She scowled at me. "I don't know who you bloody well think you are and I don't care. Give me my staff back or I'll turn you into a—"

I didn't get to find out what she planned on turning me into. When I saw her eyes flicker behind me, I reacted on instinct and whirled around to face Carter as he tried to sneak up on me.

I'll admit I was confused and wondering when the stupid security people were coming. Couldn't they hear the blaring sirens? The only thing I could think of was to keep the two thieves occupied until the authorities came.

I swung the staff at him and Carter ducked out of the way. Then I spun on my heel and swung it at Sadie as she attempted to reach for the boomerang I had dropped after tripping up Carter. I kicked it away and it slid behind the display of a sarcophagus.

Unfortunately, that gave the other boy the opportunity to come up with his own staff.

Our staffs clashed and then quicker than thought, Carter swung again and clipped me on the side of the head.

Pain temporarily blinded me as I shook my head. When my eyes cleared, Carter was just about to hit me again. I jumped out of the way and the movement jarred my head. The throbbing made me mad and I honestly don't know how to explain what happened next.

With a yell, I hit the floor with the butt of my staff and the ground trembled. Then my staff turned into a snake right in my hand. I shrieked and threw it on the ground, staring at it wide eyed. _What in the world just happened?_

Carter's eyes also widened in astonishment or fear, I couldn't tell which since I was busy freaking out about the whole thing.

The snake crawling toward me was the last thing I saw before something struck me on the back of the head.

* * *

The first thing I noticed when I came to was that someone was sniffing loudly right next to me. I tried to open my eyes to see who was making that noise when a sharp pain jabbed the back of my head and I groaned. It felt like someone had taken a sledge hammer to my skull.

The snuffling stopped.

I couldn't remember what happened or why my head hurt so much. I must have tripped over something on my way to eat breakfast this morning. "Aunt Lucinda?" I moaned.

With great effort, I willed my eyes to open and came face to face with an ugly baboon. I screamed and flung the animal off me.

The baboon caught the side of the bed before he could fall and swung himself back up. "_Agh_!"

I stared at it in surprise. For some reason I had understood what he had said. _"Stupid (rude word)! I will flatten you with a basketball."_

My eyes blinked slowly and a choked sound came out of my mouth. I was beginning to think I had finally cracked.

"That's Khufu," said a familiar voice. "He doesn't like strangers, but he'll warm up to you eventually."

I turned to see the two kids from the museum had entered the room and everything that had happened flooded back to me. "You!" I tried to sit up and winced as a wave of dizziness washed over me. "What did you do to me?"

"I hit you on the head," the girl, Sadie, I believe was her name, gave me a smug grin.

The boy, Carter, threw her a look. "We're sorry about that. We couldn't just leave you so we brought you here to the Twenty-first Nome."

"The what gnome? You know what, I don't want to know." I threw the covers off me and slid over the side of the bed away from the baboon. "I'm going home and reporting you two to the police."

Next thing I knew something had thrown me back onto the bed and a pressing weight sat on my chest. I stared into the scary fangs of the baboon and gulped.

"Get this thing off me!"

"Khufu, I think we can handle this," said Carter.

Khufu the baboon continued to stare me down. The only thing I could think about was how sharp his teeth looked.

"He won't eat you," Sadie told me as if she had read my mind. "He only eats things that end with O." Suddenly her face turned green. "Your name doesn't end with an O does it?"

"Khufu, get off him!" Carter said in exasperation.

With an "_Agh_!" he reluctantly did as he was told. Again, I understood what he said and that fact was just scary.

"Why can I understand him?" my voice was on the edge of hysteria as I jumped off the bed and began pacing the floor.

Carter and Sadie looked at each other. "You know what Khufu is saying?" Sadie looked like her eyes were going to pop out of their sockets.

There was only one thing that made sense to me. "I'm dreaming aren't I? I slipped in the museum and hit my head or worse I haven't even gotten up yet and I'll have to endure Aunt Lucinda's clumpy oatmeal again!"

"Clumpy oatmeal?" Carter looked puzzled.

"That's my Gran's specialty," Sadie replied knowingly. "It tastes even worse than her biscuits."

I ignored both of them, focusing instead on controlling my breathing. My head started feeling light headed and for a moment I thought I was going to pass out.

"I think he's hyperventilating," said a distant voice.

A sharp slap to my cheek brought me back and I scowled at the girl as she proudly examined her handiwork. "Put you head between your legs," she ordered.

I did as I was told and after a few moments I stopped gasping for air and felt slightly better.

"You hungry?" she asked. "I'm starved, lets go get something to eat and we'll try to explain everything to you."

In something of a daze I followed them around the house, catching glimpses of artifacts that looked suspiciously Egyptian. _Maybe they were art thieves._

Then we came to a room that made my jaw drop.

"This is the Great Room," Sadie announced, like she was a tourist guide at a museum. It really was a Great Room. The ceiling was at least four stories high and held up with pillars that had those Egyptian hieroglyphs decorating them. There was a fireplace and TV surrounded by comfortable looking leather chairs and at the far end of the room, double doors with the Eye of Horus stamped on it.

What really caught my attention though was the thirty foot tall statue. It was the figure of a human body with an ibis head. He held a scribe stylus in one hand and an open scroll in the other.

"Thoth," I breathed. "The Egyptian god of knowledge and wisdom."

Carter and Sadie gave each other a look again.

"You know about Egyptian mythology?" the boy said.

"Yeah," I replied absentmindedly. I had never seen anything so beautiful in my life. I know this is going to sound crazy, but it felt like the statue was calling to me. There was an itch in the back of my head that I couldn't scratch. Kind of like a tingling feeling of something I should know and yet every time I got close it would slip from my grasp.

Sadie snorted. "You don't look like the type of guy who would care about dusty old statues."

That pulled me out of my reverie. Right, I was supposed to pretend I didn't like this kind of stuff. "I don't."

"Sure you don't. You were looking at that statue like Carter looks at Zia."

"Hey! I could say the same thing about Walt or Anubis."

"Oh please! Ancient history. Let's get some food before our guest faints again."

"I didn't faint!" I shouted indignantly. "I just got a little dizzy." I decided right then that I didn't like Sadie.

With one last look at Thoth, I followed them out to the veranda where a table next to a fountain had heaps of food already spread out.

I saw some ham and dill sandwiches and my mouth started watering. I hadn't had a decent sandwich since I left California. My aunt didn't believe in feeding healthy boys junk food.

I sat down without waiting for them and piled my plate high with sandwiches, chips, some veggies, and blocks of cheese.

When I bit into my sandwich, my eyes rolled into the back of my head and my tongue felt like it was going to explode from overload. Wow, it felt great to taste real food again!

"Hungry much?" Sadie muttered under her breath. "When was the last time you ate?"

I glanced down at my plate sheepishly. "This morning."

"Well, that would explain it," Carter nodded. "You've been sleeping all afternoon."

Sadie had the decency to look a little contrite.

"What?" I glanced at the sky and was startled to realize that it was evening, probably close to dinner time. How had I not noticed the time? Storm clouds began to gather overhead and I knew I would have leave now if I wanted to beat the storm. "I have to go! My aunt will be going crazy wondering where I am."

"No! You can't go yet." Carter stood up awkwardly and I wondered if he had intended to push me back in my seat.

"Look, if this is about the museum, I won't say a word. It's none of my business whether or not you steal priceless artifacts."

"We don't steal—okay, maybe we stole the scroll, but we had to!" Sadie protested.

"Please sit down," Carter said. "Don't you want to know how you made the staff turn into a snake?"

Up until now I had forgotten about that. Now that I was reminded of the strange incident I realized that I did want to know how that happened. Reluctantly, I sat down and reached for a chip. "Make it quick. I really do have to get home before my aunt calls the cops."

For a moment neither of them said anything. They seemed to be having a silent conversation among themselves and I could almost understand what they were saying.

_You tell him._

_No, you._

_You're the one that knocked him out._

_Well, you're the one who wouldn't let me break the display in the first place._

"Guys, either you talk or I walk."

Sadie glared at Carter one last time and then turned to me. "All right. The reason why the staff turned into a snake is because you're a magician."

I stared at both of them waiting for the punch line; they looked serious. A hysterical laugh escaped me. "Excuse me? This is a joke right? Like the Harry Potter books. _You're a wizard, Harry_," I recited and again waited for them to start laughing and tell me they were just messing with me.

Hesitantly, Carter spoke this time. "We're magicians to the House of Life, following the paths of the Egyptian gods. We—"

"You two are crazy," I interrupted. "The gods are a myth."

"The way our Uncle Amos explained it," began Carter. "Is that a legacy that powerful doesn't simply cease to exist. In Ancient Egyptian times, the gods were very real, but when Egypt fell they were locked up by the House of Life to prevent the gods from creating disaster and chaos. Our mother, who was a Diviner, had a vision that the demon, Apophis would break from his prison and swallow the sun. Unless," here Carter hesitated before going on. "Unless, she and our dad released the gods from their imprisonment so that magicians and gods could relearn how to work together again to prevent chaos from rising. Our mom died to prevent that from happening."

Sadie cut in. "To make a long story short we saved the world blah, blah, blah, and have been teaching others to follow the path of the gods ever since. How we missed you I don't know. We should have found all the magicians in Brooklyn."

"I'm not from Brooklyn." I stood, this time determined to leave. "You two seem nice, but you clearly have a few loose screws. If I were you I would check myself into the nearest mental institution."

I headed for the door when something massive suddenly reared out of the water in the fountain. I froze when I saw it was an enormous albino crocodile. Its red eyes stared at me as if daring me to take one more step toward the door.

"That's Philip of Macedonia," Sadie told me. "He'll love you forever if you feed him bacon."

I gulped nervously. "Where did you steal him from? A zoo?

"We didn't steal him. He's like a guardian or lucky charm for the Twenty-first Nome."

"He's also technically not a real crocodile," Carter added.

He seemed real enough to me and why the heck did they keep mentioning gnomes? Slowly, I backed toward the door keeping my eyes on the crocodile.

"Sadie, show him," Carter told her quietly.

She grinned. "With pleasure."

Picking up her plate she threw it at my head. Before I could duck out of the way, she held out her hand and shouted, "_Ha-di_!" For a moment, blue hieroglyphs burned the air around her hand and then the plate exploded in mid air.

A piece grazed my forehead as I dived out of the way. I felt the blood running down my face before the sharp pain set in. "ARE YOU CRAZY!" I shouted.

"Sadie!"

"Oops." She didn't look all that sorry.

I wiped the blood away with my shirt, glaring daggers at her. "What was that?"

"That was the Divine word for destroy."

I pushed myself to my feet determined to leave this time. "Yeah, whatever. I've seen better magic tricks then that."

"Oh man, I didn't want to have to do this," Carter moaned to himself.

Before I could ask what he didn't want to do he started glowing. A blue shimmer covered him, lifting him off his feet as some sort of avatar grew until I was staring at a twenty foot glowing Egyptian warrior with a falcon head. _Horus_, my nerdy side whispered to me.

I could see Carter inside the avatar and he waved at me. The warrior copied his movement and then he took a step toward me.

I hit the doors running. I could hear them calling for me to come back, but there was no way I was going back to that freak show. As I came closer to where a porch or something should be I realized that I was looking down at a warehouse.

And did I mention it started pouring buckets? It was like the goddess of rain, Tefnut wanted to exact her vengeance on me for not believing in her. I tried to stop. My foot hit a wet patch and I slid across the floor toward the edge.

I couldn't get air in my lungs to scream even though I really wanted to and I couldn't catch hold of anything to stop my descent to certain death.

In a last desperate attempt as I fell over the edge, I tried to snag the ledge. It broke off in my hand and I watched with growing horror as the East River rushed up to meet me.


	3. The Vase Makes Demands

I closed my eyes and prayed for a quick, painless death.

Carter and Sadie were yelling above me. It almost sounded like they were arguing, calling each other freaks. Leave it to those two to argue until they were blue in the face while a knuckleheaded idiot fell to his death from their mansion.

"Freeeek!"

My eyes flew open. _What the heck was that? _A large bird was flying toward me at neck breaking speed—no wait, that wasn't a bird. The thing had a lion's body with a falcon's head, a wicked looking tail, and wings that moved so rapidly it was almost like looking at a giant hummingbird. Oh, and did I mention that it was twice the size of a real lion?

My nerdy brain, of course, decided to supply me with all the juicy details of the monster. _Egyptian Griffin. Griffins are protectors of treasure and they serve Horus. Extremely loyal, unless you're their enemy._

Suddenly, death by drowning didn't look so bad.

I started flapping my arms to get away from the monster. I'm sure I looked ridiculous, but there was no way I was going to become Griffin food.

"Freeeek!" the Griffin announced again and swooped down the last few yards, grabbing my arms with its sharp talons.

I wish I could say I stayed calm in the face of danger and heroically saved myself with a daring feat, watching as Carter and Sadie had to scrape their jaws off the floor at my pure awesomeness.

If only it were true. I screamed like a little girl.

My eyes were tightly closed again, expecting the monster to toss me up in the air and down me in one gulp.

Instead it let go of me and I fell back onto the veranda at Carter and Sadie's feet. I sat up shakily and took inventory of all my limbs. Someone pressed a cup in my hand and I gratefully took a sip. It was hot tea and it must have had some sort of relaxant because shortly after that I started to feel calmer.

"You all right?" Carter asked me.

I laughed mirthlessly. "You're kidding right? I have had plates thrown at my head, nearly given a concussion, almost drowned, and saved by a falcon headed bird!" I had to take a deep breath to push back the panic that nearly overwhelmed me. "So, maybe all this Egyptian stuff is real, I don't care, don't want nothing to do with it. I just want to go home."

I sniffled like a little kid, embarrassed that I was having a melt down in front of witnesses.

"I know this is a lot to take in," Carter said. "Believe me when I learned about all this stuff I freaked out. It's your choice whether or not you want to be part of the House of Life, though I should warn you, when a magician learns what he is he becomes more aware of, well, all the crazy stuff that goes on in the world. So, you could walk away and never see us again, but craziness will just follow you. Sadie and I have tried several times to have a normal day and it never works out."

Sadie snorted and muttered something about her birthday under her breath. In a louder voice she said, "And of course you'll learn magic. What boy would pass that up?" Her English accent deepened as she crossed her arms and sent me a challenging glare.

I was tempted to tell her that this boy would yet I hesitated. That longing I felt when I had stared at the statue of Thoth came back and something in my gut told me that if I passed up this opportunity I would regret it for the rest of my life.

"Okay," I finally said. "I'll join your secret club or whatever, but I really have to get home now."

"Meet us back here at nine tomorrow morning," Carter told me. He gave me directions for how to find this place again. "You'll be able to meet the other students then, right now they're a little—busy."

I had a feeling there was something he wasn't telling me; judging by his spooked look I would say it was something big. Sadie also avoided my eyes and I decided I probably didn't want to know.

"All right, nine o'clock tomorrow, see you then." I left their strange mansion and hailed a taxi, giving the driver directions to my aunt's apartment.

Carrie, according to her ID, liked to talk and asked me a bunch of questions that I mechanically answered because my head was buzzing with all that had happened.

I still half wondered if I were dreaming and would wake up soon to find the world was just as ordinary as it had always been.

When Carrie pulled up to the apartment complex, I paid her and this time gave a generous tip using my credit card. She wished me a good night and then I walked up to the glass door.

Ralph opened it for me, looking concerned. "How much trouble am I in?"

The corners of his eyes creased as he smiled. "You might not be in too deep if you hustle upstairs right now."

"Thanks," I said and took a step toward the stairwell when Ralph's deep voice stopped me.

"You look troubled. Something on your mind?"

For a crazy moment I actually considered telling him all about my day. _Yeah, that would go over well. _

I would be carted off before I knew what was going on. "Nah," I shrugged, trying to act like a happy-go-lucky teenager. I even plastered a smile on my face, though I doubt it fooled him since it felt fake to me. "Just thinking about all the cool stuff I saw at the museum. Thanks for recommending it to me."

To my surprise I was telling the truth. I was thankful that he had told me about the museum. _Huh, go figure. _Maybe all this stuff about gods and magic wouldn't be so bad after all.

He tipped his hat at me. "You're quite welcome. And— if you ever want to talk I'll be happy to listen."

"Thanks," I said again. "Well, I should go show my aunt that I'm still alive. She didn't call the cops did she?" The terrifying thought suddenly occurred to me.

Ralph chuckled. "She wanted to. I was able to persuade her to wait a little longer. Told her I had sent you to the Brooklyn Museum and you probably lost track of time. Though she _was_ surprised and seemed to be under the impression that you didn't like history." He gave me a reproachful look.

I wasn't sure how he knew I liked history. I stared at Ralph, wondering if there was more than met the eye with him. A moment later the feeling passed and I smiled nervously.

"Yeah, well, I should go." With that I bolted for the stairs, taking them two at a time until I reached my floor.

I approached my aunt's place and knocked on the door, remembering that I had forgotten to see if she had an extra key.

I heard shuffling inside and then the door swung open to reveal Aunt Lucinda with red puffy eyes. Before I knew it, I was engulfed in a tight hug. "Where were you? I am never letting you step foot outside this house again!"

I winced. "Sorry, Aunt Lucinda. I—I got caught up in everything at the museum and lost track of time. I didn't think to leave until one of the guards found me and told me that it was almost closing time."

I'm a lousy liar and it sounded bad even to me. Surprisingly, my aunt bought the story. She dried her eyes and kept touching my hair like she wanted to make sure I was really there. Or maybe she was trying to flatten the mess.

"Are you hungry? I made eggplant for dinner."

Yeah, no, definitely not. "Um, I kind of ate on my way home because I missed lunch and was starving." That was more or less true. "I think I'll just go to bed."

"All right." She gave my hair one last pat and I trudged up the stairs, then threw myself on the bed, not bothering to change. I must have been more exhausted than I realized because I soon fell asleep.

* * *

All the gods in the world forbid that I actually get a decent night's sleep without anymore craziness happening. But of course, life seemed to like playing mind games with me recently.

I felt this sort of call beckoning me to follow it. I didn't want to, but it was hard to resist, so I gave in. That's when things got really crazy. I floated out of my body. Literally.

I looked down at my sleeping form, then I caught a look at myself in the mirror and had to stifle a shriek. I had the body of a chicken with my head sticking out on top. It was the ugliest, most disturbing thing I had ever seen.

_I'm dreaming. This can't be real._

Yet, there was something niggling at the back of my head like I should know what this meant. I didn't have time to think about it because that call came again, this time much stronger.

I felt myself being pulled along, passing through Brooklyn and Manhattan at an incredible speed until everything passed in a blur. After what felt like several minutes, I slowed down. I had a great view of the landscape and was surprised that I recognized the place from numerous pictures I've studied of this area. It was the Valley of Kings.

_Figures that my subconscious would dream about Egypt of all places._

All though I had to admit that this was the most realistic dream I had ever had. I saw everything like I was really there in the flesh.

My bird form was once again tugged to go a certain way and I flew through burial chambers, zigzagging this way and that until I came to a dead end.

Instead of stopping, I was carried straight into the wall and melted through. I found myself in a small rectangular room with several hieroglyphs decorating a small section of each wall.

Where I had entered the room, the hieroglyphs sizzled and burst into flames.

I jumped back. In seconds, the hieroglyphs had been burned off the wall and I got a feeling in the pit of my stomach that something bad had happened.

Swallowing hard, I surveyed the rest of the room. The air tasted stale and musty with a hint of smoke coming from the burned wall. Somehow I doubted that archeologists had discovered this hidden room. Which was surprising since I thought they had combed this place thoroughly.

There were no sarcophagi in the cramped space. In fact, the only thing in it was a crumbling stone table with a malachite vase. Obviously, this room hadn't been meant for anyone important.

I knew the pharaohs had made smaller chambers for their clay servants to serve them in the afterlife, but even those were decorated nicely. No one had put much effort into this room.

I flew closer to the walls, studying the hieroglyphs, wishing I could read them. There was probably an entire story told on these four walls and it was in a language I couldn't read. I mentally kicked myself for going to summer camp last year for two weeks to hang out with my friends rather than take hieroglyph lessons as I had originally planned to. It would have come in handy right about now.

I heard a noise behind me and struggled with my wings to turn around. I was beginning to feel sympathy for birds. It was harder to fly than I thought.

Eventually, I got myself situated and nearly freaked out as I watched the vase move several inches to the right, then a few inches to the left. I gulped and frantically tried to find a way out of here.

Thinking I could melt through the walls again, I flew straight into the one I came through and smashed my face against it. _Ouch._

The vase was moving vigorously by now and I had no choice other than to watch it in fascinated horror. Then the vase stilled. Just when I thought it was over there was a deafening sound and the stone table cracked down the middle. The vase toppled, crashing into the floor, sending pieces scattering everywhere.

A pile of sand spilled out onto the floor and began to swirl, shaping itself into a boy. I think my jaw must have dropped.

The boy was a few years younger than me and had that weird haircut the kids from Ancient Egypt used to wear. A shaved head except for the ponytail to one side.

He was wearing a loincloth and not much else. His wrist had several of those dangling bracelets and his eyes were painted with that black stuff, what did they call it? Kohl. He also wore a golden neck collar.

We stared at each other for several seconds. I don't think I could have said anything if I wanted to. This was the weirdest realistic dream I had ever had.

The kid was giving me a puzzled look. Probably wondering why I was a Jake headed chicken.

"Who am I?"

"Err, what?" That wasn't the question I had been expecting. Maybe something like who are you, why are you here, and what the heck is going on?

"Who am I?" the boy repeated. His eyes started to fill with tears.

Great. Now I had a crying kid on my hands. Or wings. Whatever. "I don't know," I answered truthfully.

"Who am I?" This time he demanded it and his expression had changed from sadness to rage.

"Are you deaf? I said I don't know!"

"WHO AM I?" The kid stomped his bare feet, then lunged for me and suddenly I was waking up in bed. My heart was hammering and for some reason my face hurt.

I took deep breathes and shook my head to get rid of the remnants of my crazy dream. Judging from the sunlight coming in the room it was about seven-thirty. Why hadn't my aunt woken me up—

"Jake, breakfast is ready!"

I pushed myself off the bed and hunted for some clothes. I couldn't show up to the breakfast table with the same clothes I had been wearing yesterday. I picked up a blue t-shirt with a skateboarder on it from the floor and sniffed. Not too bad. I tossed that on and found a pair of jeans underneath a pile of shirts that looked clean.

My aunt was just about to call me again when I came down the stairs. "Oh!' she looked surprised. "You're already dressed."

"Um, yeah. Is it all right if I go back to the Brooklyn Museum today?"

"I don't think so, Jake," Aunt Lucinda shook her head.

"Please," I begged. "I didn't get to see even half the museum yesterday and I really, really, really want to. I promise to set my watch so I'll be home in time for dinner."

Maybe I had laid it on a little too thick, but I was desperate. I would sneak out of the house if I had to, but I didn't want her to call the cops to report me as a run away.

She must have believed I really wanted to go back to the museum because her face softened. "All right. Don't forget to set your watch."

I made a big show of holding up my arm and setting the time for an hour before dinner. She smiled at my antics, then urged me to eat breakfast.

Yey, lumpy oatmeal. I forced myself to eat every bite all the while wondering what Sadie and Carter were eating.

When I finished I helped Aunt Lucinda clean up the kitchen, then raced upstairs to grab my wallet. After reminding my aunt that I was going out I ran outside and down the stairwell.

Ralph was there to greet me and I think I may have responded. I was kind of in a hurry to leave and he probably sensed that since he didn't waste anymore time and called a taxi for me.

"Heading for the museum again?" Ralph's eyes twinkled brightly.

"Uh, yeah."

"Have fun."

I smiled and slid inside.

"Where to?" asked the taxi driver in a bored tone.

I gave him the address Carter had given me last night and the driver turned on the meter, then proceeded to sit there and look at his map. My knee bounced as I impatiently waited for him and kept glancing at the meter. The jerk was doing this on purpose to get more money!

Well, he wasn't going to get a tip from me. Luckily, Ralph knocked on the window. "Anything wrong?"

"Nope," the driver said. "Just looking for where this kid wants to go."

I resented being called a kid.

"Oh, I'm sure you won't have any problems finding it," Ralph told him cheerfully. "This here young man has an appointment to keep that he doesn't want to be late for." The doorman winked at me and stepped back.

The driver grunted and rolled up his window and started the car. I waved to Ralph and he waved back.

Why would he say that I had an important appointment to keep? He didn't know did he, about Sadie and Carter?

I shook my head. Of course he didn't. He just said that for the driver's benefit so he'd get off his lazy duff. Metaphorically speaking of course.

I stared out the window letting the scenery pass by. My head was buzzing with questions I couldn't wait to ask.

After what seemed like forever, we pulled up in front of a warehouse. I craned my neck to look up and saw the mansion shimmering into view. Apparently, the taxi driver couldn't see what I saw and stared dubiously at the warehouse.

"Are you sure you want to be here, kid?"

"Yep."

He turned to look at me and squinted his eyes. I wondered if he was going to call the cops the second I got out. I quickly handed him my credit card and just to keep him quiet, told him how much he could ring up for his tip.

His eyes widened and became greedy.

I hopped out and waited for him to leave. As soon as the taxi turned the corner and disappeared I heard someone call out. I looked over my shoulder to see Carter coming toward me.

"You made it!" He smiled. "I expected to never see you again."

I shrugged. "Yeah, well, I decided to see what it was all about."

"C'mon, we were just sitting down to breakfast." My stomach practically did a gleeful dance at that.

He led me onto the veranda where Sadie and about twelve other kids were waiting. Some of them were just toddlers. _Surely, they weren't magicians too? _I watched as a four year old boy flicked eggs at everyone.

Carter introduced me to them. "We have eleven more initiates," he explained. "Some of them are visiting their families and others are working on a few problems."

"What problems?" I asked.

"Ah, well some of them have a few loose ends they need to tie up," Carter's eyes cut to the little kids. Apparently, he didn't want to scare them with whatever they were really doing.

"And we sent four of our best initiates to sort out the cheese demons and a nasty mob of baboons," Sadie said from the other end of the table.

I blinked. "Cheese demons?"

"Annoying creatures," an ebony skinned man appeared onto the veranda, wearing a fedora and stylish cream suit. There were colorful beads in his hair. "They cause a lot of trouble and are hard to remove."

"Especially when we use exploding donkey curses," said Julian, grinning at a little kid named Felix. They bumped fists.

They were definitely speaking English, but I couldn't understand a word they were saying. And I'm pretty sure those little things walking around Felix's plate were miniature penguins. Were they made out of marshmallows?

"This is our Uncle Amos," Carter introduced the man. I reluctantly tore my eyes away from the penguins. "Uncle Amos, this is our newest recruit. Um, sorry I never got around to asking your name yesterday."

"Jake," I said. "Jake Daniels." I waited for the sniggering.

"Like the whiskey?" a girl, I think her name was Mandie, asked.

I sighed. "No, that's Jack Daniels." Surprisingly, nothing more was said and after everyone was situated at the table we dug in. It was really good. I helped myself to the pancakes and sausages.

"Tell me, Jake," Amos wiped his mouth with a napkin. "Where are you from?"

"California," I answered between bites.

"What're you doing here in Brooklyn?" Sadie asked. Her tone suggested disbelief that anyone would willingly come here, which made me wonder why she was here in the first place if she disliked Brooklyn so much.

I gave them the short version of my pathetic life. "I'm visiting my aunt."

"Have you met any movie stars?" said Felix excitedly. He forgot all about his miniature army of penguins and they began to scatter across the table.

I shifted in my seat and took a big bite out of the sausages to stall for time. Their line of questioning was getting way too personal for my comfort. _Oh, man up! _I told myself. _They don't know what your dad does for a living._ "Um, yeah I've met a few."  
"Which ones?" someone asked.

I didn't know if it was just my imagination or if everyone suddenly leaned closer. I gulped. "Which ones? Oh, um, Brad Pitt." Some of the girls swooned. "And Heath Ledger before he died." No point in mentioning I didn't exactly remember that encounter since I was like three at the time.

One girl, I couldn't remember her name, leaned on her elbows with a dreamy expression. "Heath Ledger was sooo handsome! Kind of scary as the Joker though," she made a face.

"Who else?" Felix asked eagerly.

"Uh, Johnny Depp, Cate Blanchett, Daniel Radcliff, Tristan McLean, Paul Walker, and a some others I can't remember." I wanted this conversation to end now. It was beyond embarrassing.

"Tristan McLean!" Mandie gasped. "Is he as hot in real life? He was awesome in that movie _King of Sparta_!" She turned to another girl sitting next to her and they started whispering loudly and giggling.

Girls were so weird.

"You've met an awful lot of actors," Carter said somewhat suspiciously.

I shrugged. "My dad travels a lot for his job and occasionally I've gone with him. Sometimes I just happen to be in the right place at the right time." There was no way I was going to volunteer what my dad really did for a living.

Amos stood from the table, affectively cutting off another question Mandie was about to ask me. I was so grateful I could have kissed him. "I'm heading back to the First Nome," he announced and winced dramatically. "When I left a pile of documents were neatly stacking themselves all over my desk."

The other kids laughed and Amos turned to me with a smile. "It was nice meeting you Jake."

"Yeah, same here." He shook my hand, kissed Sadie goodbye, and gave Carter a hug.

When he left Sadie said to me, "Uncle Amos is in charge of the House of Life. He spends most of his time in the First Nome, but he comes to visit every once in awhile."

"Why do you guys keep mentioning gnomes?" I asked in puzzlement.

"Nome, spelled, N-O-M-E. The entire world is separated into Nomes, kind of like factions," Carter explained. "Egypt is the First Nome and basically the capital."

"Oh, that makes more sense."

I watched as one of the miniature penguins climbed on my plate and dragged my last sausage to the edge and pushed it over. Two other penguins were waiting at the bottom and began rolling it away. The penguin on my plate jumped and landed neatly on its feet before helping its pals steal my sausage. I looked around to see what the others reaction would be to this and they hadn't even noticed. Maybe this was a common occurrence during meal times.

Carter looked around the table to see everyone was done eating and stood. That seemed to be a signal because all the others pushed away from the table too. I could tell it embarrassed him.

"Come on," Carter gestured for me to follow him as everyone else scattered in several directions. "We'll get you some new clothes, then you can start with the class Magical Problem-Solving 101."

"What's wrong with my clothes?"

"If you're going to learn magic you'll have to start wearing cotton because other materials interfere with casting spells."

I looked down at my shirt. "This isn't made from cotton?"

"Yeah, it is, though it's not 100% cotton."

He led me into a room and I saw the baboon from yesterday, Khufu, laying on the bed surfing channels. There was a tire swing in the corner and a dresser littered with remnants of mangos and cheerio boxes. As soon as Khufu saw me he bared his teeth and said "_Agh!_"

It didn't shock me as much this time that I understood him. "Oh, yeah? Well same to your mother!"

Carter looked at me strangely, but I didn't feel any need to explain myself. "The baboon has his own room?"

"Um, no. This is my room, he likes to stay with me since our initiates took over his den."

He reached into his closet and pulled out a pair of black linen pajamas. "These look like they'll fit you."

"I am not wearing pajamas."

Carter's lips twitched. "I usually have t-shirts and stuff that are all cotton, except there was an accidental fire about a week ago. All I have left are these."

Grudgingly, I took them and stared at the baboon. "I'm not dressing in front of him." Khufu stuck his tongue out at me.

"Bathroom's over there," he pointed.

I went inside and changed my clothes, leaving my shirt and jeans on the floor. I looked at myself in the mirror and made a face before stepping back into the room. "I look ridiculous."

"_Agh!_" Khufu agreed.

"You'll get used to it."

"I look like a ninja"

"A very cute ninja," a girl said popping her head into the room and gave me a wink. I blushed. She turned to Carter. "We were all wondering where you disappeared to. Felix summoned his penguins again."

Carter muttered something under his breath.

The girl turned to me and smiled. "I'm Alyssa by the way."

"H-hi," I stuttered like a retard. "I mean, I remember from breakfast. I'm Jake." I groaned to myself and wished someone would put duct tape on my mouth.

Alyssa smiled. "Nice to meet you, Jake."

Thankfully Carter cut on. "All, right, Jake. You ready for Magical Problem-Solving 101?"

I nodded and followed him out of the room with Alyssa walking closely beside me. I glanced nervously at her, wondering if she was so close because she liked me or if she habitually invaded peoples space. Either way I wished I had taken the time to comb my hair before coming over. "What's the class about?" I asked, trying to distract myself from over thinking.

"How to solve problems using magic," Carter answered.

"We call it Whatever Works," Julian came around a corner and fell into step with us. "It's my favorite class."

"I didn't bring any notebooks," I said.

Julian laughed and clapped me on the back. "Don't need one. The only thing you need is to think quickly."

I glanced at Carter anxiously, wondering what Julian meant. His expression gave nothing away and Alyssa smiled at me reassuringly.

Somehow, I wasn't feeling reassured. They led me up the stairs into a basketball court sized room. Felix was already there with a group of penguins surrounding him. It looked like he was trying to imitate their walk and was squawking at them.

"Felix, please, I already told you that you can't have penguins in the training room," Carter reminded him in an exasperated tone.

"But they're so cute and useful!" he protested.

I kind of got the feeling they had gone through this before because I could see Carter rolling his eyes. I stood out of the way and watched the older initiates help Carter herd them out of the room and then he shut the door.

"All right," Carter stood in the middle of the room. "Remember to try thinking outside the box. Felix, don't use basketballs or shoes."

"Aw, c'mon!" the short kid complained.

Carter handed out five clay statues and had them distributed around the room. What exactly were those statues supposed to do? Maybe we were playing magical tag and they were the bases.

The other three initiates looked excited and I wondered what they were expecting. Carter spoke a word that nobody had to tell me was magic. I could feel the power behind it all the way into my pores.

And then the weirdest thing I have ever seen happened. The statues grew taller and then moved. They actually moved!

I didn't have time to gawk at them though because they were advancing on us, carrying wicked looking spears. At first they marched as a group and then broke off, targeting each of us. I stood frozen as one of them walked toward me.


	4. An Egyptian Warrior Nearly Kills Me

I stared opened mouthed at the clay figure marching toward me.

It was crudely made with one leg shorter than the other so that it threw off his rhythm making him limp stiffly rather than striding smartly as the other clay statues were. Half of the face was gone, though I could still see that the head was a jackal while the rest of the body was definitely human. That didn't make the clay soldier any less scary. Even his spear looked wicked sharp.

I stumbled backwards, wondering what I had gotten myself into. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Carter turn into that falcon headed avatar again and was fighting his statue with that weird boomerang thing.

Julian hopped all over the place, jabbing at his clay soldier until finally he turned into a green falcon headed avatar and proceeded to demolish it to pieces. Felix ran around the room taunting his statue as it struggled to keep up with him. Some white powder shot out of the kid's hand toward the floor behind him. It turned into ice and the statue slipped on it and slid across the floor, shooting past Felix before crashing into a wall. The statue crumbled into several large chunks.

Alyssa stood a few feet away from me with her arms folded across her chest. She had a look of determination on her face as her clay statue came closer and then she calmly raised her right hand and lifted the warrior off its feet. It tried to throw his spear at her and she ducked out of the way. After that she tossed the statue half way across the room.

I turned my attention back to the jackal headed figure advancing toward me. His crude mouth (half of it missing) stretched into a hideous grin and he swung his spear lazily from side to side, knowing it had the easy kill.

Seriously, I knew nothing about magic or how to tap into it if I even had any. These guys were insane to just throw me in the middle of their games like that. I was going to die.

I continued backing up, looking around desperately for some kind of weapon. I saw a basketball laying on the floor next to me and kicked it as hard as I could at the Egyptian warrior. The basketball grazed his shoulder, knocking off small pieces of clay to the floor.

"Bonus points for using a basketball!" Felix shouted at me.

I didn't dare glance at him for fear that the statue would impale me with his spear the minute I looked away. I couldn't see anything else laying around that I could use as a weapon.

Slowly, an idea came to me. It was crazy and I doubted it would work, but I had to try something because there was no way I was going to let some stupid statue get the better of me. I stopped backing up and tried to look more confident than I felt.

I raised my hand in front of me and yelled the spell Sadie had used to shatter that plate she threw at my head. "_Ha-di!_"

Nothing happened and I felt foolish. I was trying to figure out what I had done wrong when the clay statue threw the spear at my head. I let out a strangled yell and ducked out of the way just in time. The spear stuck to the wall where my head would have been.

I rolled out of the way, jumping to my feet and kicked the statue in the leg. The only thing I succeeded in doing was stubbing my toe.

"Ouch, ouch!" I said, hopping around on one foot.

The statue merely grunted and pulled the spear out of the wall before turning around faster than I would have thought a deformed clay figure could to stab me in the gut. I panicked and threw myself on the ground, crawling in between his legs. The statue made a sound of surprise and attempted to grab my ankles. I managed to evade him and pushed him off balance from behind.

The Egyptian warrior only stumbled a few steps away before turning back around and swung his spear at me again and this time I knew I was a goner. All I had time to do was throw up my hands over my face and hope that I had a quick death.

The statue exploded and chunks of clay rained down on me.

Warily, I peered around my arms and saw the warrior in several pieces at my feet and sagged with relief, letting my arms drop. I glanced at the others who were all watching with various amazed expressions on their faces. No doubt they thought that was the worst performance they had ever seen. "Thanks," I said to them. "I thought for sure I was a goner."

They glanced at each other, wide eyed. "We didn't do that," Carter finally spoke up. "You did."

"Did what?" I asked puzzled.

"You cast the destroy spell without saying it," Felix said with admiration shining in his eyes. "Wicked."

"No, I didn't," I argued. "When I tried to do it before nothing happened."

Carter shook his head. "What ever you did was impressive." There was a look in his eyes that I didn't understand and I wasn't sure I wanted to.

"I'm telling you, I didn't do anything. One of you guys must have," I wondered if they were playing a practical joke on me.

"Nope," Alyssa said shaking her head. "Afraid not."

The others shook their heads too and I frowned thoughtfully. Did I make the statue blow up?

After a few seconds of awkward silence, Carter clapped his hands and addressed everyone. "Good work people, especially you Felix. I'm glad you didn't throw a shoe at your statue this time."

Felix grinned. "I told you, I'm following the god of ice."

I made a face, wondering what he was talking about. As far as I knew there was no such thing as the god of ice in Egyptian mythology since Egypt was in the middle of the desert.

Before I could ask about it, Carter jerked his head toward the door. "Go on, I need to prepare for my next class." His eyes met mine. "The others will show you where to go next."

Alyssa tugged on my arm, leading me to the entrance. We stepped aside to let a group of five to seven year olds through. "They aren't going to do what we just did are they?" I asked in alarm.

"Don't worry, Carter goes easier on them."

I wasn't sure that made me feel any better. "If I'm a beginner why wasn't I with them?" I said as I followed the three of them out of the room.

Julian snorted. "You really want to put the kiddy gloves on?" I was about to retort when I saw a flicker of something across his face. _Was that jealousy? _Why would he be jealous of me?

"We're all protective of the younger initiates," Alyssa broke the uncomfortable silence.

"So I'm expendable?" I was only half joking.

Her face heated up. "No, of course not! I - I meant that…" her voice trailed off as she looked to the others for help.

I decided to ease up on her. "That was a joke."

"Oh," she looked relieved.

We walked back to the first floor in silence until Julian and Felix suddenly broke away from our group and turn to the left down another hall while Alyssa headed toward the front entrance. I stopped, unsure who I was supposed to follow.

Alyssa glanced back and motioned for me to keep up. I fell in step beside her. "Where are the other two going?"

"They're going to Napping."

"Napping?"

She nodded, looking a little wistful. "It has a long waiting list."

Sometimes I wonder if these people enjoyed being cryptic on purpose. I decided to put that aside and asked something else. "Where are we going?"

"To the library. It's Monday which means we have Sympathetic Magic today, but that's not for a couple hours so I'm going to introduce you to our librarian, Cleo. She'll help explain any questions you have since I'm sure you're still confused about some things."

_That was a huge understatement. _I eagerly followed her through the double doors with the eye of Horus painted on it. As we entered the room my first thought was that this had to be the biggest library I had ever seen. There were rows of shelves with cubby holes and stacks of scrolls, small statues, and various other objects that definitely looked Egyptian in each one.

Clay figures stood on pedestals in each corner of the room in much better shape than the Egyptian warriors we had to fight in the training room. A long table was situated in the middle of the library piled high with scrolls, maps, clay pieces, and a few other odds and ends.

I almost didn't spot the girl half hidden by all the stuff as she leaned over the table with a magnifying glass studying something intensely.

"Whoa, Cleo!" Alyssa stared at the table in amazement. "I've never seen this place so messy!"

Cleo looked up and made a face as she too surveyed all the stuff on the table. "I know!" she moaned. "One of the shabti went rogue and really tore the place apart and then Carter came in wanting me to decipher this scroll and—"

Alyssa held up her hands. "I was kidding, Cleo. It's not that bad. You should see some of the boys rooms."

Cleo shook her head, her bangs flopping into her eyes and she brushed them away impatiently. "I don't like disorganization."

"We can clean up for you. By the way, this is Jake Daniels."

Cleo gave me a blank look. "Like the whiskey?"

I sighed. "No, that's Jack Daniels. My name is Jake."

"Oh," she looked embarrassed. "Yeah, I knew that." She wiped some clay dust off her hand before holding it out to me. "I'm Cleo."

I shook her hand. "Nice to meet you."

Cleo turned to Alyssa. "I thought Sadie and Carter found all the magicians in Brooklyn."

"He's from California," Alyssa explained. "He's here visiting his aunt."

"Oh, I see. Welcome to Brooklyn," she smiled at me.

"Thanks," I helped Alyssa move everything off the table to the cubby holes Cleo directed us to until all that was left was the scroll she had been studying when we came in.

"Hey, isn't that the scroll from the Brooklyn Museum?" I stared at it, my fingers itching to touch the paper to see if it was as rough as it looked.

"Yep," answered Alyssa. "Any progress, Cleo?"

"A little. I should have it deciphered by the end of the day."

"Good, can you afford to take a little break? I was hoping you could answer some of the questions Jake has," she asked.

"Sure," she turned to me, waiting expectantly.

"Err," for a moment I had to think of a question. "What exactly does it mean to follow the paths of the gods?"

Cleo nodded enthusiastically like she was glad I had asked. "Following the Path of the Gods is the origin of Egyptian magic. As magicians we summon the gods power to create stronger magic. We _can_ do without the gods and for the longest time magicians did when the House of Life locked them up after the fall of Egypt until Carter and Sadie began to teach the Path of the Gods again. Locking up the gods had some side affects none of the Chief Lectors foresaw. Not only were the gods significantly weakened, but so was the House of Life. So, I guess in a way the gods and the House of Life need each other to exist."

"Why were the gods locked up?" I asked.

"They created too much trouble," she explained. "Gods don't like to be dictated to and a lot of times they expect us to do things for them in exchange for using their power."

I thought about that for a moment. "That's not too bad. I mean if you siphon some of their power, giving something back in exchange seems like a good trade off."

Cleo shook her head. "It would be if they weren't gods. Most of the time they want us to host them, which could be bad if we host them for too long. Some magicians have been literally burned up because they can't handle all that power for too long. Gods also have a tendency to be sneaky and underhanded. They make something sound good and by the time you've figured out what their really up to sometimes its too late to do anything about it."

"Okay, so no hosting gods or making deals with them," I said, "Check."

She smiled. "Not all gods are like that though. There are some that like to help and don't ask for too much in exchange."

"Back to channeling the gods powers," I said. "Can you channel any of the gods powers? I mean, do you channel which ever god you want depending on what their power is?"

Cleo thought about that for a moment. "I suppose you can channel more than one of the gods powers, though I wouldn't recommend it. That might be like taking on too much and you could probably burn up or go insane if you tried. Deciding which god's power to channel really depends on two factors. What your specialty is and whether you're magic is compatible with them. Me for example, I follow the path of Thoth because like him, I seek to enlighten myself through knowledge. Alyssa follows the path of Geb because she has an affinity for earth magic. We usually let new initiates decide which god they would like to follow by learning their strengths and weaknesses through Magic Problem-Solving 101, Sympathetic Magic, Animal Charming, and other classes taught here." She turned to Alyssa. "By the way how did he do?"

"Well," Alyssa eyed me speculatively. "He didn't perform any combat magic like most of our initiates do on their first try. I'm not sure what he did."

Cleo turned to me with raised eyebrows and I shrugged. "I tried to use a Divine word and when that didn't work I prepared to die and hoped it didn't hurt."

Alyssa snickered at me. "Don't be so dramatic. He made the shabti explode without saying or doing anything."

Cleo's eyes widened. "Really? How did you do that?" she asked me in an awed tone.

I shrugged again. "I don't know. At first I thought someone else had made it explode."

"What Divine word did you try to say?"

"_Ha-di_." As soon as I said the word a statue from the cubby hole to the left of me exploded. "Oh, sure now it works."

Both Cleo and Alyssa stared at the shattered statue in shock. "Did you mean to do that?" Alyssa asked me.

I shook my head. "No."

They exchanged wide eyed glances and I began to worry. What if I was some kind of freak even among magicians?

"Magic can be tricky," Cleo said thoughtfully. "After all we're still not sure where Felix channels his power from." She smiled at me reassuringly. "Give it some time. I'm sure you'll figure out which path you'll follow. I know I didn't figure out what my specialty was right away. Any other questions?"

I thought about that for a moment. "How come this is the first time I've ever heard about gods and magicians being real? You would think that something like this would make it onto the tabloids at least."

"We're suppose to keep a low profile," Alyssa explained. "Plus if anything unusual happens during a conflict, mortals are notorious for not noticing. I think they can't perceive things the way we can. Or else they would rather believe in the mundane and explain away strange occurrences through logic and science. For example, did you hear about those freak storms that kept happening all over Egypt and that really big storm in Washington D.C.?"

"Yeah, that was really scary. Wait, that was you guys?"

"Yep."

"Sweet!" I said.

Alyssa rolled her eyes. "Leave it to a boy to think freak storms are awesome."

I was about to reply when one of my jean pockets vibrated. It took me a moment to realize it was the cell phone my mom gave me before I left home and I pulled it out. The caller ID said it was unknown.

"Hello?" I answered.

"Jake! Thank goodness I got a hold of you," came Ralph's voice from the other end.

"Ralph?" I asked, puzzled. "How did you get my number?" Not even my aunt knew I had a cell phone.

He didn't answer me. Instead he said, "Your aunt had a stroke and she was taken to Victory Memorial Hospital."

"Is she okay?"

"Your aunt is a sturdy woman. From what I hear it was a mild stroke, all the same I think she needs you right now."

"Yeah, okay. I'm on my way." I hung up and turned to the girls. "Sorry, I've got to go. My aunt was taken to the hospital."

"Is she okay?" Cleo asked, concerned.

"Yeah, I think so. Ralph, her doorman, said she had a mild stroke." I began edging toward the door. "Where do you think I can find the nearest taxi?"

"I'll take you there," Alyssa jumped in.

I stared at her dubiously. "No offense, but are you old enough to drive?"

"We're not driving, silly," she tugged on my arm, waving goodbye to Cleo as we exited the library. "We're taking Freak."

"Do I even want to know who Freak is?" I asked.

"He's our Griffin and he can get us there twice as fast as a taxi."

"A Griffin?" I gulped. "Not the same Griffin that caught me before I fell into the East River yesterday?"

Alyssa laughed. "Sadie told me about that. Yeah, it's the same one, but don't worry. Freak is a sweetheart."

"I think I'd rather take a taxi," I muttered.

She pretended not to hear me and stopped two four year old twins chasing each other around with hand paint. "Jamie, Jesse could you tell Carter that I took Freak out for a ride and I'll be back soon?"

"Uh huh," they both said in unison before taking off again.

Alyssa led me up to the roof, only making a brief stop to snag a whole turkey from their deep freeze. Near the back of the house they had made a giant nest for their Griffin where it lay in the afternoon sun snoozing so loudly it was a wonder no one could hear it from below. On the other side of the roof gleamed a golden boat big enough to hold half of their initiates.

"You have a boat on the roof," was all I could think to say.

"How else are we suppose to ride Freak?" Alyssa raised an eyebrow.

_Of course silly me. _At the mention of his name the creature lifted his head sleepily and gave us a considering look. I wondered if he remembered me.

"Hey sweetheart," Alyssa cooed. "Look what I brought you!" she held up the frozen turkey and the Griffin sat up eagerly. She tossed it in the air and Freak jumped up, his powerful jaws snapping around it.

As Freak's enormous tongue licked it's chops, Alyssa harnessed him to the boat and then motioned for me to get in. After giving the Griffin one more dubious glance, I gingerly stepped in and we took off.

"Which hospital did they take her to?" Alyssa shouted over the sound of Freak's hummingbird wings.

"Victory Memorial!" I shouted back.

She nodded to acknowledge that she'd heard and I sat back on one of the seats, not wanting to fall out and splatter all over the ground.

I had to admit after I got used to the idea of being up in the air in a boat it was kind of fun and I found myself leaning over the side to get a birds eye view of the world below.

"This is awesome!" I told Alyssa.

She smiled weakly at me and gripped the reigns tighter.

The ride ended sooner than I would have liked, but once we landed on the roof of Victoria Memorial reality slammed back into me and I began to worry about my aunt again. "Thanks for the lift," I said. "I-I probably won't come back tomorrow or the next day." What I didn't say was that I wasn't sure I would be able to come back at all.

"Take your time," she said.

I waited for her to take off and when she remained where she was I asked, "What's wrong?"

Alyssa bit her lip and then laughed nervously. "It's just that I have a fear of heights."

I stared at her in disbelief. "You didn't look like you were afraid of heights earlier."

"Yeah, well that's because you were with me and I was able to trick myself into thinking the boat was solid ground." She ducked her head sheepishly. "It's harder to pretend when I'm alone."

"Do you want me to call someone?" I offered.

"No," she raised her chin defiantly. "I can do this." She snapped the reigns and Freak took off to the sky again. I waved at her, though I doubt she saw me since she was staring straight ahead.

I took the stairs down to the first floor and asked the nurse at the desk for my aunt's room. The lobby was busy with both ingoing and outgoing patients and the nurse looked a little frazzled.

After she gave me the room number I thanked her and took the elevator up to my aunt's floor. I knocked softly on the door to announce my presence, then pushed it open to reveal my aunt alone in the bed with her eyes closed.

I walked around the bed to get to the chair on the other side and sat down, taking her hand. I hadn't realized just how fragile she looked until now. "Aunt Lucinda?" I called to her softly. "Aunt Lucinda, it's me, Jake."

Her eyes fluttered open sleepily and she turned her head to look at me. A smile flitted across her face. "Jake, how did you enjoy your second trip to the museum?"

"It was all right, but enough about me. Are you okay?"

"Oh, I'm fine," she squeezed my hand. "I feel well enough to go home, though they're keeping me overnight for observation."

I had a feeling she was downplaying things and I wished I knew who her doctor was so I could ask him for his opinion. "I'm sorry I wasn't there, Aunt Lucinda."

"I'm fine," she repeated. "It was a mild stroke, hardly did any damage at all." She let go of my hand and placed it on top of my head to run her fingers through my hair. "I've had some time to think while I've been laying here doing nothing. It's been a rough four weeks for the both of us hasn't it? I've never been married or had kids so I don't know the first thing about taking care of a teenager. I tried to let you have your space while you dealt with your parents divorce and I know I'm not a good cook," she chuckled when I made a face.

Her hand fell from my hair back to the bed as she looked me straight in the eye. "I don't want you feeling bad about not being there for me because it's not your job to look after me. It's your job to be a teenager and to enjoy life while you can." She hesitated before going on. "I don't know if I'm stepping out of line here by saying this, but I think it needs to be said. You're not to blame for your parents divorce, Jake. There was absolutely nothing you could do to prevent it from happening, if anything the blame lays with your mom and dad. Do you understand?"

I nodded, feeling a lump in my throat. I didn't know how Aunt Lucinda knew that I secretly wondered if I was the cause of my parents divorce. I wasn't sure I believed her since a lot of their arguments had centered around me, still it was nice to hear that all the same.

"I'm feeling a little tired," my aunt admitted. "You can go on back to the apartment if you like."

"Okay," I said and remained seated.

She huffed at me before closing her eyes. Soon she was snoring softly and I stared down at the floor, wiping away a tear that managed to escape.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry about taking so long to write this chapter. I want to thank everyone who has followed this story and/or left reviews. I will try to post the next one faster.**


	5. I Get A Crash Course In Magic

I opened the taxi door for Aunt Lucinda and helped her get out. Even though she insisted she never felt better I could tell by the way she clung to my arm and held her breath while she stepped onto the sidewalk that she was in more pain than she was letting on.

Ralph must have seen us from his post by the door because he ran out and took care of the cab fare and then helped me support Aunt Lucinda as we guided her inside.

"There's no need to make such a fuss," she complained loudly.

The guy behind the desk in the lobby stood up and nodded to us. "Ms. Cowell," he murmured, eyes filled with concern.

"Please," she replied scornfully. "You all act as if I have one foot in the grave." At that moment she stumbled. Ralph and I tightened our grips on her and steadied Aunt Lucinda. Her face was paler and she let out a shaky breath. "Lost my footing for a moment," she tried to explain.

Ralph and I exchanged glances, but said nothing. We led her into the elevator where my aunt sagged against the wall, exhausted.

I kept close to her, my hands ready to grab her if she fell again. "I see you had the elevator fixed," my aunt said to Ralph.

"Yes, ma'am," he replied. His teeth gleamed brilliantly against his black skin. "Mrs. Dandelion complained about taking the stairs whenever she went shopping."

Aunt Lucinda snorted. "Mrs. Dandelion is only happy when she's complaining about something."

Ralph's mouth twitched.

"Isn't a dandelion a flower?" I asked.

My aunt chuckled at me, which turned into a coughing fit. Ralph and I both reached for her again, but she just waved us away. "No, Jake," she said. "It's a weed."

"Oh."

The elevator doors pinged and slid open, sticking a little half way through before opening all the way. Ralph frowned and muttered something about getting the repair man to fix that.

"Use a can of WD40," I suggested as I took one my aunt's arms and helped her shuffle out of the elevator.

This time Ralph smiled and I got the feeling he was laughing at me. I thought it had been a pretty good suggestion.

He helped me get Aunt Lucinda situated on her couch and then asked her if she needed him to do anything else.

She shook her head. "Go on, I've kept you from your duties long enough."

"If either of you need anything just ring the front desk."

"Okay," I said and shut the door after him. I turned back to Aunt Lucinda feeling a little nervous. _How do you help someone who just had a stroke? _"Um, do you need anything…like a blanket?" I remembered the time my dad hired me a man servant shortly after we became mega rich. Something that had embarrassed me to no end. Every morning he had insisted on making me tea for breakfast. Some times I had even watched him make it. "Or w-would you like me to make tea for you?"

Aunt Lucinda smiled at me. "Maybe later. Right now I am a little tired. Those nurses kept me up all hours of the night poking and prodding me just as I fell asleep." She tried to sit up before giving up and collapsing back onto the couch. "Could you help me to my room?"

I awkwardly put my arms around her waist and used what little strength I had to help her to her feet, nearly toppling over as she leaned on me rather heavily.

"Sorry," she muttered.

I didn't answer, reserving all my energy into leading my aunt to her room. I nudged open the door with my foot and entered the only room in the house I had never been in. The wallpaper was floral as was the bed spread with matching curtains. The carpet was shaggy white.

Feeling like I was intruding in her personal space I quickly led her to the bed and helped her sit down. "Anything else?" asked, desperately wanting to leave. The air smelled like a mixture of perfume and old person.

She shook her head. "No, I can manage. Help yourself to dinner when you're hungry. Better yet, order out if you want. I think I have some menus in the kitchen somewhere."

"Okay," I shut the door behind me and looked around the apartment, noticing that the kitchen and living room floors were covered in dusty footprints.

I hated doing chores and I never volunteered if I could help it, but I felt like I had to do something so I swept up the floor and mopped it, knowing that if my mom were here she would probably mark this day on the calendar. That thought stopped me cold. If I had been a better son and done my chores without complaining would my parents still be married?

To distract myself from that depressing thought I searched for the menus Aunt Lucinda mentioned and found them in the drawer of her cabinet where she kept all her fancy plates.

The take-out menus were for places that served health food that didn't even sound appealing so I dug out her phone book and ordered pizza with extra cheese. I played on my Xbox until the doorbell rang and took the pizza box from the delivery guy handing him a twenty dollar bill.

I took the box into my room and demolished half the pizza while I played Call of Duty: Ghost. After that, I made sure the front door was locked and fell into bed without changing my clothes, falling asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow.

* * *

Naturally, I had to have another weird dream. When my chicken headed self floated above my body this time I was only mildly surprised. It was still creepy beyond belief, but this time I didn't try to ignore the call that tugged me away from my body.

I sailed through New York and half way around the world back to Egypt. This time instead of ending up in a gloomy tomb I found myself standing outside the pyramid of Giza. It was early morning and a crowd of tourists were already gathering. All around the pyramid were tacky tourist stands with guys yelling over each other to be heard, hawking their wares.

From a distance the pyramids looked beautiful and majestic. Up close they a pile of crumbling stones with Cairo in the distance and a haze that I knew to be pollution surrounding the place.

"So you're back," said a familiar voice, dully.

I turned to see the kid from the vase standing next to me. I couldn't help it. I squawked in alarm and flapped my wings to get a safer distance between us. Hey, you try getting nearly killed by some kid who materialized from a vase demanding to know his name.

When I realized he wasn't going to come after me, I warily came a little closer and studied him. He was no longer wearing the loin cloth and gold necklace. Sometime since I had last seen him he had shaved the rest of his head and donned jeans and a shirt that was several sizes too big for him. He stood with his shoulders hunched and a sad look in his eyes. In spite of myself I couldn't help feeling sorry for him.

"I don't suppose you found out my name?" he asked tiredly.

"Um, sorry I haven't."

His shoulders drooped even more and he sighed.

"I'm uh, sure you'll find out who you are," I said awkwardly.

The boy shook his head. "I know who I am or rather who I was before I died. That is not the same as knowing my name."

That made no sense to me, but I wasn't about to point that out since I didn't want to have to deal with another tantrum. "So, who were you?"

He straightened up and thrust out his chin as he turned to stare at me with solemn eyes. "I am Amenemhat, son and crown prince of Thutmose III." He deflated again as he turned to face the pyramid once more. "Or at least I was. I died when I was nine years old so I imagine my brother, Amenhotep II took my place as crown prince."

"He did," I said, remembering a little about what I had learned of Thutmose III and his children. I think Thutmose III had been a great military strategist.

Amenemhat curled his lip. "My brother was a fool. He often thought our father was weak for being co-regent with a woman rather than taking his birth right by force. He often said if he were pharaoh he would have her name removed from all records. The highest form of an insult you could give to another."

I racked my brain to remember if he had done that. "Yeah," I said slowly. "Yeah, I think I read something about Amenhotep II defacing Hatshepsut's monuments and even taking credit for the stuff she did. At first archeologists thought that Thutmose III had done it until they realized that didn't make any sense since he had controlled their army while she was pharaoh. If he had really wanted to be the pharaoh all he would have had to do was use the army against her."

Amenemhat nodded. "My father loved his step-mother and would never have done anything like that."

"Can I ask you something?" I asked hesitantly.

"Speak," he said.

"Well, if your name is Amenemhat why not be satisfied with that? Sounds like a, uh, good name to me."

The boy sighed again. "Because I am not really Amenemhat. I possess his body and I have his memories as if they were my own, but that is not who I am. After he died I was—" his brow furrowed as he concentrated. "I was something—something else, wandering around aimlessly on this earth when I was reborn into this body."

"What were you?"

"I can not remember," his anguished face turned toward me pleadingly. "That is why I must know my real name. If I were to find it I would know who I am. Will you help me?"

I hesitated. How did you go about looking for someone's name? It wasn't like I could look under a chair for it. "I—I'll try."

For the first time since I met him, he smiled. "Thank you."

The crowd around us was getting thicker as the morning dragged on and it occurred to me for the first time that no one was freaking out about seeing a chicken with a human head hovering in the air. They acted as if they didn't see us.

"It is a shame what has happened to them," said the boy next to me and I realized he was talking about the pyramids. "I remember when they were the pride of our civilization. Now look at it."

It just now occurring to me that this kid had lived thousands of years ago and would have seen these pyramids when they were still practically new. "What was it like back then?" I asked.

He thought for a moment. "Quieter and less smelly," his nose wrinkled. "What is that horrible smell?"

I sniffed cautiously. "Probably gas fumes and sweaty tourists."

His face puckered in distaste. "Egypt is no longer the glorious kingdom it used to be," he said. "Who is the pharaoh now?"

"Um, I'm pretty sure they don't have a pharaoh," I said.

"Then who is in charge?"

"Some president dude, I think."

He stared at me. "You have no idea?"

"Not really," I shrugged, which felt really weird since I was a chicken. My entire body moved with the gesture. "I don't live here."

"Where do you live?"

"In America."

He titled his head in puzzlement. "Where is that?"

"Really far away from here," I said, not wanting to go into detail about where exactly it was and how it was formed since America hadn't even been discovered yet in his time.

Thankfully, he didn't insist on answers. Instead, he frowned at the tourists. "Why are all these people here?"

"This is a tourist trap," I tried to explain.

"A tourist trap?"

"Yeah, these people are interested in Egyptian history and they come here to see one of the greatest monuments ever built."

"What is that man doing over there?" he pointed to an Egyptian looking dude selling what looked like a hunk of rock to some fat guy with a hot dog.

"He's selling a souvenir to the hot dog guy."

The kid looked like he was torn between outrage and curiosity. "He's selling him a hot dog?"

I snickered. "No, he's selling him that rock."

"Why would he want to sell a rock when they are in abundance?"

"Its probably a piece of the pyramid," I replied.

"They are selling off pieces of the pyramids!" his voice rose so loud that I was sure we would finally be noticed, but no one even glanced in our direction.

"Yeah," I slowly edged away, sensing that he was about to blow and I didn't want to be too close. "Let's hope he has a permit."

"This is barbaric," he seethed. "It is bad enough that the Great Pyramids are crumbling apart. What will they do when there is nothing left to sell?" Before I could answer he stormed off toward the tourist stand.

"Amen—whatever!" I called after him. "Wait!" I tried to flap after him and it felt like I was stuck in molasses. Then the ground began to shake.

* * *

The next thing I knew I was waking up with a hand covering my mouth. I started to struggle and then realized it was Ralph. He put a finger to his lips and I nodded to let him know I understood and he let me go.

"Did something happen to my aunt?" I asked anxiously.

He shook his head. "Your aunt is fine. You realize it took me ten minutes to wake you up?" he said, looking worried. "I thought I would have to call an ambulance for you next."

"Sorry," I apologized. "I'm a heavy sleeper." I had a feeling that wasn't the reason he couldn't wake me up; however, I wasn't about to explain my crazy dream to him.

He studied me for a few seconds before he said, "You have some friends asking for you downstairs."

I glanced at the clock on the nightstand. "At two o'clock in the morning?"

He smiled. "I would have told them to come back later, but they said it was quite urgent and I do believe they mean it."

"What about my aunt? I can't leave in the middle of the night!"

"I'll take care of it," he promised. "Better change your clothes and brush you hair," Ralph advised. "There's also a cute girl waiting."

I blushed and immediately thought of Alyssa. He stepped out of my room and I hurried to put some clothes on and flattened my hair. Ralph was waiting for me in the living room and we quietly left the apartment.

"Don't you ever go home?" I asked as we rode the elevator to the lobby.

He laughed. "Yes, I do. It was my night to stay."

"You always seem to be here," I said, frowning as I tried to remember if there was ever another doorman besides him.

"I enjoy working," was all he said.

As soon as I stepped out of the elevator I knew something was wrong. Julian and that girl, Mandie were waiting for me; their expressions lined with worry and unease. "Took you long enough," huffed Mandie.

"Sorry," I muttered. "What's up?" I was a little disappointed that Alyssa wasn't there.

Julian glanced at Ralph and the guy behind the desk (not the same man as the one when I brought my aunt home) who was staring at them suspiciously.

"We'll explain on the way," he said.

"I can't go anywhere with you guys," I told him. "I have to stay here in case my aunt needs me."

"Go," Ralph urged. "I'll take care of your aunt." Before I could protest he was ushering us out of the building.

"I'm sorry to hear about what happened to your aunt," Mandie said.

"Thanks."

"C'mon we have to hurry," Julian urged. He moved toward the road and I noticed Freak and the boat parked at the curb.

"Yeah, that's not conspicuous at all," I said.

"We didn't know where else to park," Mandie grinned.

I climbed into the boat with them and Julian took up the reigns, flicking Freak on the back with them. He started up his loud hummingbird wings and we began to rise steadily in the air.

I looked back to spot Ralph staring at us from the doorway and when he saw me looking at him he waved. I couldn't help wondering what he saw.

"Okay," I said turning my attention back to the other two. "What was so important you had to drag me out of bed in the middle of the night?" I had to shout to be heard over the noise of Freak's wings.

"We had a little trouble after you left!' Mandie shouted in my ear. "Rogue magicians who think we should go back to the old ways and lock up the gods again."

"They attack us from time to time," Julian added over his shoulder.

"Great, what does this have to do with me?"

"Carter told us that the magician he fought with was boasting about how he was recruiting younger kids that hadn't been found by any of the Nomes yet and were using them to create an army that would help overtake the First Nome. They have this strange device that helps them find potential powerful magicians. He also mentioned that they had found a young magician here in Brooklyn that they haven't recruited yet."

When Julian paused to keep Freak from chasing a bird, Mandie took over. "Carter and Sadie weren't sure if you were the one they were talking about, but they thought it would be safer if you stayed with us for a couple days."

"I can't," I protested. "I have to go back. My aunt needs me because she just suffered a stroke and if she finds me gone that might only make her condition worse."

"Don't worry," Mandie assured me. "Carter has it all figured out."

That didn't reassure me. I wanted to yank the reigns from Julian and turn this boat around and I probably would have if I knew how to steer the thing. If nothing else I could hike back.

We landed on the roof of the Twenty-First Nome and I climbed out.

"Go ahead and take him inside," Julian told Mandie. "I'll take care of Freak."

She nodded and gestured for me to follow her. Mandie led me into the house and I noticed a lot of damage had been done since I was last here. There was a sooty black mark on the floor next to the statue of Thoth and I hoped that hadn't been anybody I knew.

The library was packed with quite a few initiates gathered around the table Cleo had been using to study the scroll earlier. A few looked battered and bruised. One guy had some bandages wrapped around his head and his arm in a sling.

"Jake, you made it!" Felix beamed at me. Aside from the black eye he was sporting he looked to be in better shape than most of the others.

I gave him a quick smile, then walked past him to get to Carter and Sadie. "Look," I launched into my speech right away. "I appreciate everything you're trying to do for me, but I have to get back. My aunt suffered from a stroke and she needs me."

"We've got that covered," Sadie replied. "We are going to swap you with a _shabti_."

"A what?"

"A _shabti_," Carter explained. "Is an Egyptian clay statue. Iskandar once created a _shabti _to take the place of Zia, another initiate, and no one even noticed. It will act just like you and will even give you daily reports if you want. Alyssa has already started creating one for you."

"You're going to replace me with a statue?" I asked in disbelief. "Trust me, my aunt will know the difference between me and some statue."

"Not if Alyssa makes it right," said Sadie.

I wanted to argue some more, but we were interrupted by Cleo approaching the table carrying a box decorated by Egyptian hieroglyphs. "I had finished translating the scroll just as we were attacked," she told everyone. "Thought it would be a good idea to hide it in here just in case."

"Good thinking," Carter praised.

"What did it say?" asked Sadie, her British accent getting even more pronounced.

"It's a partial page torn out of a book called _The Book of Future Prophecies_," Cleo began.

"Only a partial page?" Carter looked disappointed.

"Afraid so," Cleo unlocked the box by chanting something under her breath and gingerly took out the scroll, laying it onto the table. "You can see at the bottom of the page that this hieroglyph isn't finished and the edges are kind of jagged like it was torn apart."

"Why can we never find a complete scroll on the first try?" Sadie complained.

"Why did you even steal it in the first place?" I asked curiously.

Carter and Sadie looked at each other and I could tell they were having another silent conversation. Carter sighed and nervously ran his hands through his hair. "I guess you all deserve to know," his eyes swept over all the initiates in the room. "As you know Walt, Zia, and Jaz have been on a secret mission. They've gone to the Eighteenth Nome to help with a sudden uprising of demons in that area. According to Walt's last message they haven't seen this many demons gathering together since Apophis tried to swallow the sun."

An uneasy murmur went around the room.

Carter waited for it to die down before continuing. "Sadie and I went to the Brooklyn Museum to get the scroll because Zia learned that it might contain information that would help them."

"Well, what does it say?" Julian asked from the back impatiently.

I looked back at him, wondering when he had come in.

"The parchment was written shortly before the fall of Egypt," Cleo said. "Apparently a Diviner foresaw Egypt being overthrown by the Romans. It went on to say that she also foretold of a demon child who would escape from a long imprisonment and would try to learn his true name because he had forgotten it."

"Is that it?" someone asked.

Cleo shook her head. "There's probably more, but like I said the page was torn in half."

I got a sick feeling in my stomach as Cleo began studying the scroll again. This demon child couldn't be the same one from my dreams could it?

"What now?" asked Mandie. "How are we going to find out what the rest of the prophecy says?"

"You should ask Thoth," Cleo suggested. "He might know where the rest of the scroll is."

"Maybe," Sadie said slowly. "He has helped us find other books before."

I was wondering if I should tell them about the dreams I had when at that moment Khufu the baboon ran into the library and screeched, "_Agh_!"

"The rogue magicians are back," Cleo and I said at the same time. We regarded each other with surprise.

"You understood him?" she asked.

"Yeah, you knew what he said too?" I was relieved. At least that meant I wasn't completely weird.

Cleo nodded.

Carter began shouting to everyone to go back to their posts and the kids scattered. Sadie took off right behind Mandie, giving out orders of her own. Cleo put the scroll back in the box and had one of her statues put it away.

"What about me?" I asked.

Carter thrust a staff and boomerang in my hands. "These are tools of a magician. Just do what you did at the museum."

"A boomerang is a tool?" I said in disbelief.

"It's actually a wand," he corrected. There was an explosion somewhere in the house and he glanced back at the door anxiously.

"Go," Cleo ordered. "I'll help him." Carter nodded gratefully at her and took off. I turned to face Cleo and she smiled uncertainly at me. "I hate fighting," she said. "But I'll help you as best as I can. Follow me."

I trailed after her to find that the main part of the house was busy with the initiates throwing spells, rocks, and even a few basketballs down to the street below. Some guy in long flowing robes was climbing over the wall only to fall into the pool and get swallowed by Philip of Macedonia.

Cleo crouched behind a pillar and motioned for me to do the same. I hunkered down beside her. "What do we do?"

"First, don't get hit," she raised her wand and pointed it behind me. A burst of light came out, shooting past me and blasting back a woman with red hair.

"How did you do that?" I asked in awe.

Cleo made a face. "I really wish I had time to teach you everything, but I need to you to remember a few basic Divine Words that will help you. You already know _Ha-di_."

I saw another guy climbing the wall, this time farther away from the crocodile and threw my wand at him. It clocked him on the head, causing him to loose his grip and fall off the balcony. My wand returned to me and I couldn't help grinning. "That was awesome."

Cleo continued. "Remember _Sa-mir_, that means 'pain' and can be difficult to control. _N-dah_ means 'protect'. That spell would be more affective if you draw protective circles but we don't have time to teach you that."

I nodded to let her know I was still listening.

"And probably the most important Divine Word for you to remember right now is _Sa-per_, which means "miss'. Use it in case someone throws something at you."

"Okay, is that all?"

"For now," she gave me an apologetic smile. "I wish we could have taught you more before your first battle."

"You and me both," I muttered.

Cleo and I joined the fight. More rogue magicians were coming up the sides now. A girl around my age saw me and threw a fireball at me. I ducked out of the way and threw my wand at her at the same time.

She stepped to the side and my wand sailed past her and past the balcony. She summoned another ball of fire and directed it toward me with her staff. I pointed my staff at the fire and shouted, _"Sa-per_!" The ball of fire changed course and exploded into the wall.

Cleo stepped up behind the girl and clubbed her with a thick sized book and she crumbled to the ground. "Awesome!" I gave Cleo a thumbs up and she grinned shyly.

"Meow!" came an angry cry somewhere to my left. I turned to see a small, agile looking woman with black hair and cat like yellow eyes wearing a leopard print leotard. She had some seriously wicked looking knives that she wielded like a pro.

She was dueling an older man with a gray beard that went down all the way to his enormous belly. He kind of looked like Santa Claus. He even had the red cheeks and a jolly smile as he blocked her blows. I now knew my image of Santa Claus had been ruined forever.

At that moment my wand decided to return to me and clobbered me upside the head, throwing me back against the wall. Which as it turns out, probably saved my life. Another magician had been coming up behind me when a seventeen or eighteen year old guy let loose a blast of wind that was aimed at me and took out the other magician instead, careening him into a couple of his pals and they all went down like dominoes.

"I'm going to kill you, Jerry!" the man roared as he struggled to disentangle himself from the bottom of the spontaneous dog pile.

"Sorry, Grant!" the kid yelled.

I didn't take the time to see the rest of Grant's reaction as I jumped to my feet and swung my staff at Jerry. He blocked me with his staff and then before I could react he hit me in the stomach. I gasped and went down. The last thing I saw was the butt of his staff coming at my head.

* * *

I woke up in some sort of makeshift infirmary. I sat up slowly, groaning as my stomach and head protested the move. There were a few cots set up with three other initiates occupying them.

"You're awake," Cleo said with relief. She handed me a cup of water and I drank it gratefully.

"Thanks," I said when I had finished.

She stared at me worriedly. "You shouldn't have been out there in the first place. I should have insisted you stay in the library."

"No way," I protested. "I wanted to help." Never mind that I hadn't been able to fight for five minutes without getting knocked out. I felt like a total loser.

To prove I wasn't weak and pathetic I insisted on getting up and then realized that was a mistake when the room started to spin. I swayed a little and Cleo grabbed my arm to steady me.

"Maybe you should lay back down," she said nervously. "I'm no Healer, but I think you have a concussion."

"I'm fine. What time is it?"

"It's almost six."

"Six! I need to get back before my aunt wakes up and finds me gone."

"We're going to replace you with a _shabti _remember?"

"I doubt some statue will fool my aunt. She has good eyesight for her age."

"C'mon, I'll show it to you," Cleo said. "Alyssa finished while you were—resting."

I tried not to notice her hesitation and slowly stood up holding my stomach. "He didn't crack a rib did he?"

"No, you're just bruised. You'll probably feel sore for a few days."

I shuffled out of the hospital room with Cleo walking slowly beside me. It made me mad to feel so weak. I was probably the worse magician they had ever seen.

She led me to a part of the house I had never seen. It looked like a private study or maybe a reading room since it had modern books lined along actual bookcases and comfortable looking chairs. I wanted to sink into one of them and catch my breath. My ribs ached from the walk.

Carter, Sadie, Alyssa, and Julian were already in the study waiting for us. "How are you feeling?" Carter asked me.

I grinned and tapped the side of my head, which hurt and made me wish I hadn't done that, but I managed to maintain my smile and said, "Good thing I have a hard head."

Alyssa stepped forward, looking worriedly at the bandages on my forehead. "Are you sure you're all right? Jaz is our Healer and we weren't sure just what to give you for the pain. Sadie made a potion, but—

"Seriously, I'm fine," I assured her. "What I really need is to go home." I raised my hand when Alyssa started to protest. "I know you went through all the trouble making that _shabti _thing for me and I am grateful. I just don't think my aunt will be fooled by some statue."

"It's not just a statue," Sadie said. "It's you, in a way."

Carter turned toward the desk at the far corner of the room and looked at the swiveling chair facing away from us. "You can join us now, Jake."

The chair slowly rotated until it faced us and the figure sitting there slowly rose and came to join us. My jaw dropped and all I could manage to say was something like, "gah."

"Hello," said the replica of me.

I blinked. The voice even sounded like mine. "Um, hello." I couldn't believe how life-like it looked. He was even wearing the same clothes as I was and I wondered how they had managed that. I poked the statue in the chest just to see how it felt and was surprised to encounter flesh.

The other me looked down at his chest, frowning before poking me back. A really hard jab that didn't do wonders for my bruises. "Hey, watch it!" I snapped.

"You watch it," he retorted.

We stood there and glared at each other.

"He has your memories," Alyssa said suppressing a smile. "And if you want he can report back to you everything that happens. He'll share his memories with you of what he does throughout the day that way when you do go back to your aunt's you'll have an general idea of what you all did."

"This is awesome," I said. "You made this?"

Alyssa blushed and nodded shyly.

"Do you still want to go home?' Carter asked. "I really do think it would be safer if you stayed here and trained with us."

I stared doubtfully at the _shabti_.

"I will take good care of Aunt Lucinda," the other me promised.

"Okay," I finally said reluctantly. "I'll stay." As much as I wanted to learn more about magic I couldn't help feeling guilty that I was abandoning my aunt at a critical time like this. I turned to the statue," "You better take excellent care of her," I told it sternly. "And report back to me immediately if something happens."

"I will," the _shabti_ promised. It nodded sort of stiffly to the others and walked out of the study. Presumably to go home.

"Now that that's settled we need to talk about the other thing," Sadie said. "What are we going to do about finding the other half of the scroll?"

"I like Cleo's suggestion that we ask Thoth if he would know where we could find it," Carter replied.

"I'll go," Julian volunteered.

Carter shook his head. "No, we need you here in case the rogue magicians come back," he groaned and rubbed his eyes tiredly. "They picked a terrible time to attack us."

Suddenly, I remembered my dreams about that kid and thought now would be the perfect time to share them. Hesitantly, I told them about my dreams and the conversation I had had with him last time. The entire time I recounted what happened I couldn't help feeling stupid and once I had finished I waited for them to laugh at me.

"Could this Amen-whoever be the demon from the prophecy?" Sadie asked.

"Amenemhat," Carter corrected automatically and she glared at him.

"Wait, you guys believe me?" I asked incredulously.

"Of course, why wouldn't we?" Cleo gave me a puzzled look.

"I don't know. Because I'm having weird dreams about demon kids? You should be locking me up in a rubber room with a straight jacket."

"It's actually common for a magician's _ba _to travel when they sleep," Julian told me.

"A what now?"

"We'll explain later," Sadie said impatiently. "Right now it sounds like we have to move quickly if the demon child has already woken up."

I had a bad feeling that I had somehow accidentally set him free, but I wasn't about to admit that to them.

"Both of us can't go," Carter told Sadie. "One of us will have to stay behind to help out here."

"I'll—" Sadie was interrupted when Mandie burst through the door.

"Sadie, Walt just contacted us again. He wants to talk to you," she said breathlessly.

Both Carter and Sadie ran out the door with Mandie following close behind them. Since none of the others moved to follow I figured that meant we were suppose to wait here, so I moved to one of the chairs and sank into the soft leather with a sigh.

Cleo sat in one of the other chairs. "Carter's right. This was a bad time for those magicians to attack and we don't know if they'll do it again. We'll need just about everybody to fend them off."

"Why don't you go?" I asked her. "Aren't you following the Path of Thoth?"

She looked startled at the suggestion. "Oh, I—I can't go. Who will take care of the library?"

Julian snorted. "I'm sure the library will be fine."

"Well, what if someone needs me to find something?" she thought up another excuse and shook her head vigorously. "Doing quests are just not my thing."

An idea was beginning to form in my mind and I was half afraid to voice it since I was a newbie and didn't want to overstep my bounds. "What if I go?" I said. "I'm useless here since I don't know as much about magic or fighting as you all do and I'll only get in the way."

I desperately wanted to be useful in some way and the idea of meeting a god sounded exciting. The others looked thoughtful at my suggestion.

"That might actually work," Julian said grudgingly. "We'll have to see what Carter and Sadie say."

Just then the two people in question entered the room again, looking grim. "Change of plans," said Sadie. "I'm leaving to help Walt and the others and Carter is staying here."

"Which means we'll have to pick someone else to go," Carter added.

I quickly repeated my offer and they looked thoughtful.

"That would work," Carter said slowly.

"But you should have someone more experienced travel with you," Sadie said. "That way you don't die on us before you can learn anything useful."

"Gee thanks for the vote of confidence," I muttered.

"I'll go," Alyssa volunteered. "I'm not as strong as Julian so you could probably spare me."

"All right," Carter said. "Both of you need to travel to Memphis, Tennessee as quickly as possible to ask Thoth for help. Once you get the scroll come back here immediately."

"Without getting killed," Sadie suggested helpfully.

"Okay," Alyssa shifted her focus to me. "We should leave before the magicians attack again. Pack lightly."

"Come with me," Carter motioned for me to follow him. "I'll give you some stuff you might need to take with you."

"And don't forget to take some pain potions," Cleo added anxiously. "You're not healed yet."

"I will," I promised her before leaving with Carter. I quickened my pace to keep up with him, anxious to get started and prove to them I wasn't a complete moron.


End file.
